Chronicles of the Crimson Meddler
by ColossalSpaz
Summary: Hop in to the little clusterfuck that Isane Uzumaki's life is about to become as she is literally thrown into the DC Universe and the life of the Batman after the final fight against Madara. Starts pre-Nolanverse and goes on from there. FemNaruto/Bruce Wayne. Chapters 1-3 rewritten.
1. The End of the Road Leads to a Crossover

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto, Batman, or any other DC franchises that may be integrated into this fanfiction. Heck, I don't even use the cover picture; it belongs to the Deviantart user nyugyu. I will also probably be using stuff from other anime and manga, so pretty much consider this disclaimer applicable to the whole story.

**Warnings:** Powerful female Naruto, Dimension Hopping, somewhat Naruto AU, Nolanverse, Gradual integration of more DC universe characters, Strong language, mild sexual references/situations, and mild gore.

**Main Pairing:** Isane Uzumaki(Female Naruto)/ Bruce Wayne(Batman)

**Beta/Co-writer**: Divider

* * *

**A/N: **So, after giving it much thought, I decided to do a rewrite of the chapters that I'd already posted. I'll still keep much of the plot the same, so those of you that have already read it will see much of the same stuff. I did, however, expand a bit more on the background and tried to-hopefully- make the story a bit more appealing. Don't worry though, I'll try catch up to what I'd first written as quickly as possible.

* * *

**Chapter 1:** The End of the Road Leads to a Crossover?

Isane Uzumaki had been many things in her lifetime. Pupil, orphan, pariah, thief… you name it, she'd probably been it at some point in her short sixteen years of life.

She was not, however, an idiot.

Therefore, it was easy for the red-haired jinchuuriki to tell that she was being toyed with. No matter how much Madara seemed to be struggling (did she just spot a bead of sweat on his forehead!?) she couldn't shake off the feeling that the guy had something else up his sleeve. And why shouldn't he? No super-powered, rinnegan-wielding evil mastermind who'd spent numerous decades planning his return would just waltz into battle without a plan B.

It wasn't the fact that she had no idea of whatever he was planning that bothered her. No, it was the fact that she was getting tired.

It really pissed her off that she'd spent so much time, put so much effort into her training yet she was still not strong enough to kill the guy. It made all of the training that she'd done over the years seem futile. Sure, she had no fancy dojutsu like the rest of them, but she thought that she'd made up for it by putting herself through the hell of training that she did.

One might say that there was no way for him to win. It would be irrational for him to do so; impossible even. There were numerous shinobi from all the hidden villages, the Sannin, and not to mention the four resurrected kages against him. Obito had completely succumbed to the juubi already, having had a change of heart a bit too late and been subsequently taken control of by his previous boss. Yet the Uchiha patriarch still pushed in strong and, in the end, the majority of the shinobi present ended up as spectators to the raging fight between the three jinchuuriki (plus Sasuke), and the four previous kages.

Yet here he was alive and kicking, literally. The guy was a supposed master of everything, and it showed in battle. Even in her sage tailed beast mode it was hard to keep up. They'd have to end it soon.

Which was why B and her were desperately trying to get past the freaking juubi.

They'd agreed that killing Madara required nothing less than a tailed beast ball each. Call it overkill, but the kunoichi had always liked her enemies to stay dead and buried. She wasn't about to take the chance that the bastard would just shrug one off. And they'd need at least that amount to get past the juubi.

The kage were proving to be very useful at keeping Madara busy. They did need some time to gather the needed chakra since forming those little bastards sure did take a lot of it. She'd probably have died a while ago if she hadn't formed a truce with Kurama to stop him from draining her chakra every time she transformed into her Sage tailed beast mode. It sure did make a difference to be able to let loose, and she'd even be willing to grudgingly confess that the teme's Susanoo did help a bit…only a bit.

It hadn't been too much of a surprise that Sasuke's had decided to show up. It was only to be expected of the asshole to be nothing but a hindrance most of the time, only to try to save the day all of a sudden. She didn't really care either way; she'd never been close to him. She was even somewhat grateful for his appearance (not that she _really _needed his help) but she'd only barely been able to restrain herself from kicking his ass when he stated that being Hokage didn't sound too bad. As if she'd let him.

"Isane," spoke Killer B, "Look at him, what is he doing?"

At this, the young girl looked up at the man from the juubi tentacle she'd just dodged and let out a well-deserved "Fuuuuuuuck" at what met her sight.

The bastard had gone and used the juubi as a distraction as he formed what looked like a nearly invisible orb of some sort aimed right at them. She'd be willing to bet anything that it was most likely an instakill.

"The end of our battle has come," declared Madara as he got in a launching position, "Behold, my Concentrated Shinra Tensei!"

As he was saying this, Isane and Killer B began to desperately gather any chakra available to them. They all remembered what one of those Shinra Tenseis could do, and nobody was eager to have a repeat performance. After all, it was highly unlikely that Madara would have a change of heart after killing them all and sacrifice himself to bring them back to life like Nagato did.

Likewise, Sasuke started to ready his Susanoo. Apparently deciding to add the flames of Amaterasu in order to enhance its strength.

So it was that Madara launched his attack, only to be met by a powerful resistance led by the Kyuubi jinchuuriki herself.

And so Isane's world went dark.

* * *

If someone were to be walking in the streets of Gotham at this very moment-which nobody dared to due to certain nighttime horrors- that person would most likely have to immediately be placed in the care of the Arkham psychiatrists right away.

After all, only someone completely bonkers would claim to have seen the body of a glowing young red-haired teen seemingly floating off the ground.

Let me tell you, however, that that person was completely right. There had been a floating, glowing teen in the streets of the Narrows of Gotham City at 11:35 at night. But that girl didn't stick around long enough to be spotted by the police. Said teen opted to hide her presence and observe instead.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck" she mumbled, "where the hell am I? And why the hell am I talking to myself?"

She didn't wait for an answer (not that her furry companion would provide one) and started to create shadow clones to survey the area. It would be just her luck to have landed on the next country from the impact of the jutsu collision, or even worse, time traveled.

She shuddered at that thought; such a thing would only serve to create more headaches for her… and paperwork. She hated paperwork.

After a few minutes she decided to go search for some shelter. It wouldn't do for her to catch a cold; not that she could when her fire affinity kept her body warm. She ended up finding a pretty beaten up apartment, much like the one she had inhabited before she'd made some renovations. Luckily for her, it had just what she needed, a roof and a floor (she also needed water, but fuck it, she was too tired)

Her clones started to report back their findings after a while, informing her of the change in scenery. She was apparently now in a village-no city named Gotham, in the United States of America.

…She was also no longer in her own world.

'Figures,' she thought, 'of all the things that could've happened to me, I end up dimension traveling.' She decided to send the clones back out. Sporting outfits to match the locals as well as the faces from people she'd met, courtesy of the henge. A necessary step, seeing as everyone would freak out when spotting a small army of the same red-headed teen. Now there was a thought!

* * *

It didn't take her long to get settled down. Adaptation came easily to her nowadays, what with all the traveling that she'd done in her lifetime. She'd found shelter in an abandoned building a few streets from where she'd woken up. It looked like crap and smelled like piss, but it was habitable.

Her appreciation of fuinjutsu had never shined through as much as it the moment she started to unseal a small scroll titled "Necessities". Said scroll contained an array of items ranging from a cooking pot to a sleeping bag. Hah! And to think the Ero-sennin had made fun of her magpie-like tendencies. That'd show him.

The real treat though, came as she reached the last of her items. There, at the very bottom of the pile, was Kami's greatest gift to mankind. Ichiraku's special on the go ramen. It truly had been a great idea to hound the man until he gave in to the idea that had sprouted from many-a-night during which the kunoichi had found herself too far away from her home village to purchase one of the exquisite bowls of bliss. Not that they'd ever be as good as the freshly made ramen, but she'd take what she could get.

Deciding to get some rest after finishing up her meal, she summoned more shadow clones and sent them out with the rest to guarantee an awaiting surplus of information the nest morning. She'd also set up some traps around her camp in case anyone spotted the small fire she'd made using scattered pieces of furniture to cook her meal. If her assumptions were correct, tomorrow would be a long day, and she couldn't wait to start fucking around.

**A/N:** So that's it! I hope you like this rewritten version better than the original. I know I do! Any questions/comments/concerns can go down there in the review box…just sayin'.


	2. No Shortcuts Allowed

**Chapter 2: **No Shortcuts Allowed

Isane learned much about Gotham over the next few weeks. Granted, the whole learning didn't really start until after she'd mastered the language, but she actually got that down pretty quickly. Ah, the wonders of the shadow clone. She spent a significant amount of her non-English speaking days just getting the layout of the village-no-city memorized. The things she saw truly did amaze her. Huge buildings, moving metal boxes with people in them, and the huge metal snake-looking thing that moved around the city at random intervals were just a few.

That wasn't to say that there weren't some dark aspects as well. She quickly learned why there weren't many people out at night. Many of her clones had been mugged, killed, and even sexually harassed while gathering information. And kami, did she mention the smell? There was a constant smog all over the place, with an oily smell that drove her crazy until she finally sucked it up and adjusted to it.

She ended up moving her headquarters to the park. It proved to have been a wise decision due to its closeness to a Laundromat that she learned to love, especially when she bought some clothes that she could wash. The purchase of those clothes proved to be rather easy. She had accumulated a vast wealth in ryo over the years that she kept stored in her trusty Gama-chan and in a seal on her hitai-ate. Having learned how expensive the gold that the ryo were made of was in this world, she set out to find the nearest pawn-shop to exchange some of it. She did only exchange 30 ryo though, a wise decision considering how she was cheated of over half of its actual worth. Everything seemed to move smoothly from there, aside from the person that the pawn-shop owner sent after her in order to steal the rest of the ryo. Not that she had any trouble getting away from him.

Most of her days were spent reading over any texts that she could get her hands on, be it an old newspaper or an encyclopedia. She was like a sponge, soaking up all the information placed in front of her. And when she ran out of books, she often had her clones break into colleges and universities to read theirs. What they didn't know wouldn't hurt them, right?

Life was good, yet she couldn't keep on ignoring the fact that she lacked an identity. She'd never really considered just how necessary a name was. Having been a kunoichi since infancy, she'd spent most of her life hiding her true identity rather than giving it out. But she was so damn tired of sleeping outside since she couldn't rent an apartment. Don't get her wrong, she liked a good challenge as much as the next guy, but it sucked to have to spend rainy nights huddled in front of a flaming barrel.

She was also in a dire need of companionship. She now spent most of her time talking to herself. Hell, she even talked to her shadow clones, now that was a new level of pathetic. She'd tried contacting Kurama numerous times, but he wouldn't respond. At first she thought that he was playing a prank on her or something. But a quick trip to her mindscape showed that he was apparently taking a power nap. She was reluctant to find out just what he did to have been drained out _that_ badly.

Therefore, seeing as she had no skill whatsoever when it came to mind jutsu, she reckoned that she was due for a visit to the more seedy part of the narrows(If that even made any sense)She wasn't new to the whole "Making a deal with the devil" situations after her travels in the Elemental Countries. She took care to use a henge on herself though, transforming into a middle-aged brunette in order to avoid being recognized later on. It would be a pain if they had a way of looking for her after whatever deal they made was done. The way she saw it, she should be able to get the theory of how to create a new identity for herself and make the government her bitch in a few more weeks, but she still needed an apartment and a computer to try out the actual skill.

* * *

Dealing with the mob had been surprisingly easy. Or maybe she had just gotten too used to dealing with the Akatsuki. Either way, all she had to do was take out a man named Joe Chill. A quick miniaturized wind blade had taken care of that. She felt no remorse for killing the guy. Sure, she had nothing against him but the fact that he had killed a kid's parents in front of said kid just to make a few bucks was a dick move.

All that was left now was to pick up her new identification papers from the boss himself. Apparently he had been impressed by her skills, and wanted to meet with her (no doubt in order to try to recruit her). In her mind, there was no time for that. Their deal was done and, frankly, the whole "I'll scratch your back if you'll scratch mine" charade had gotten really boring already.

Or so she thought. It was as she was listening to the white-haired mob boss drone on and on about how much of the city he already owned that she spotted him. The man from the courthouse. She remembered spotting him behind one of the pillars as she got ready to take out Chill. But it wasn't his whole sneaking around that had claimed her attention. It was the gun in his hand, barely concealed by the sleeve of his sweet-ass looking jacket. Seriously, she needed one of those. But anyways, back to the point, it didn't take a genius to put two and two together, especially when said man bore an uncanny resemblance to the man whose face appeared all over Gotham, Bruce Wayne. She was seriously not impressed with his whole "avenger" demeanor. She'd had enough when trying to capture the youngest Uchiha after he went rogue. Therefore, she'd decided to teach him a lesson by showing him how the big kids play. The look on his face had been priceless.

She'd had to scoot down the booth as Falcone's men sat the man down

'_How rude' _she complained to herself, a bit peeved but too interested in what was going to go down to voice her protests.

Despite her expectations, the whole encounter turned out to just be a wash-down for Bruce. She was mainly only staying there due to a tiny, very minuscule part of her being that felt a bit responsible for the billionaire's predicament. Not that it was _really _her fault. She then waited until the man was being safely-if not a bit violently-taken out to make her escape(she had already received her payment from the boss). Leaving Falcone to turn to address her, only to be met with an empty seat.


	3. Hitting the Road

**A/N:** I've decided to have instances during which Kurama is speaking to Isane from within her mind **bolded**, like so. This would mainly be due to the fact that I think it's easier to tell that he's not actually present, rather than me just writing "Kurama said, from within her mind", which I find annoying.

* * *

**Chapter 2: **Hitting the Road

_Three Months Later_

Isane was bored. There wasn't anything to do in Gotham anymore. Sure, she'd finally gotten the hang of how to use technology effectively (for less than legal purposes) but all that did was get the mob off her back.

She missed them. It had been a lot of fun to lead the assholes that were Falcone's men around town. The man really couldn't take no for an answer, so she made sure to give back as hard as she got. So it was safe to say that no one was surprised anymore when a particular nasty prank was pulled on the man(her favorite had been the blow-up doll sent to his wife, try to explain _that_)She did have to move apartments three times though since the gorillas he sent were inconsiderate assholes. "Take off your shoes please", she would say, only to be charged at.

So she'd moved and changed her fake name to her real name, Janie Greene just didn't have the same ring to it(who the hell came up with that anyways). The only interesting thing that had happened was that Kurama had woken up. Only to explain that he was a bit weakened from saving her ass. He made a show of being indignant at her lack of gratitude but she'd shut him up by pointing out that if she was fucked, so was he.

She'd tried a lot of ways to have fun in town. But her favorite by far was sneaking around while pretending to be working. She'd be a janitor one day and a store manager the next; money didn't even matter since, aside from all her ryo, she'd started publishing the Icha Icha Paradise series. She did help Jiraiya write it after all, and she did base her pen name on him. The series didn't disappoint, and the author Ero-sennin quickly became famous. But even writing porn had lost its appeal over time.

She needed excitement, some sort of challenge. She wasn't used to resting and having a semi-normal life. She had even taken to using the ANBU armor that she'd stolen that one time in Konoha to take out criminals at night, but it wasn't that fun when she couldn't compare kill scores with another person.

So she decided to go to the Haly Circus that Sunday afternoon. And it was awesome, they had everything in there. There was this huge elephant that would do tricks for peanuts, and a man getting launched off of a cannon. And the acrobats-did she mention the acrobats?-they were fantastic. By the end of the show she'd made her decision and had already gotten the ok from the Circus owner to join them.

"**Are you sure kit?"** asked Kurama, **"there's no guarantee that you'll learn that much from them."**

The Kunoichi was unfazed and replied with an excited voice, "Are you shitting me? Did you see what they did with that rope, that's skill I tell you, pure skill."

The teen had wasted no time in thinking up all the ways in which the acrobatic skills that her new idols had would make a badass addition to her fighting style. 'I'll be dodging bullets like the people in that movie, what was it called again? Right, _The Matrix'_

Kurama just sweat dropped, there was no stopping that girl when she started fangirling over fighting techniques, just ask the Akatsuki. He had to admit though, those humans did have some moves.

She waited until the circus was almost empty to approach them, The Flying Graysons.

"Hi, my name's Isane Uzumaki and I'll be joining you from today on" she spoke.

The adorable little boy that accompanied the couple looked up at her with wonder-filled eyes "Whoa, your hair is looong"

"Yup! I use it to swing around town. But shhh, it's a secret." She replied, with a wink for good measure.

The grown-ups chuckled, and the man took it upon himself to make the introductions "My name's David Grayson, and this is my wife Kate. You just met our son, Richard, most commonly known as our little Robin."

"He's already started training in acrobatics, which I'm told you want to start doing. It's going to be hard though, but it really depends on you." Chimed in Kate.

At this, Isane got a determined look on her face "Hell yeah! Hit me with everything you've got, I won't give up dattebayo!"

Kate and David just smiled at her, glad for her determination. While an eager little robin watched with stars in his eyes.

"**Weird ass humans" **grumbled the nine-tails; at least the brat would stop pestering him for now. It was really entertaining to see her get all fired-up. That side of her hadn't shown up for years and had left the lazy-ass part to take over. Not that he could complain about it to her face seeing as he spent most of his time on his ass.


	4. Farewell

**A/N:** I'd forgotten to mention this before but I made Bruce only be 4 years older than Isane. That means that by the time Batman Begins rolls by he will be 28 and Isane will be 24. There are a lot of time skips in this story so you will only really find solid ground when Isane interacts with prominent characters for now. FYI the Dark Knight Rises never happened. EVER. It would be kind of hard to introduce the Justice League if I went full Nolanverse. Don't forget to review! And thanks for the faves/follows!

* * *

**Chapter 4: **Farewell

_Three Years Later_

* * *

**Dick Grayson**

* * *

At the age of seven, Richard "Dick" Grayson was one of the happiest boys alive. Well, maybe that was an exaggeration. He had little to no friends his age and he had never gone to a real school. But he lived in a traveling _circus_. How cooler could a boy's life get? Sure, he still had a bedtime and he was homeschooled, which kinda sucked. But he had loving parents with an awesome job and he got to see all the animals up close. Not to mention how he was learning martial arts from a ninja.

Yeah, that's right. He was a ninja in training.

It hadn't come easy though. He had had to practically beg Isane to teach him after he'd found her practicing her shuriken throwing one day after practice, about a month after she'd joined them. He couldn't believe his eyes when he'd seen her. He hadn't even seen her hands move! He remembered looking from the target to her, gaping like a fish, and hearing her say something like "It would've been a bother to stop myself". You bet your ass he had asked her to teach him! But she said no, so he naturally kept on annoying her until she cracked. It took a week.

They also spent a lot of time watching movies. It was weird; Isane barely knew anything about _Disney _or any other movies. So they'd made it their goal to watch as many movies as possible on weekends when they didn't have to train. They'd grown really close over the two years that they had spent together, and he'd blushed like a tomato when he'd accidentally called her "sis" during one of their movie nights. He'd been surprised when, instead of laughing, she had just looked at him softly and said that she'd always wanted a brother too. And so Dick Grayson became Isane Uzumaki's Ototo.

His mom and dad really liked her too. Just as The Flying Graysons and The Flaming Fox did a lot of shows together; David and Kate Grayson spent a lot of time with Isane Uzumaki. It was nice, like their little family was complete.

So why was she leaving them?

"Dick." called Isane, "Dick", he wouldn't respond, he was too angry with her, "Dick, Dick, Dick, Dick, Diiiiickkkkk~!"

"WHAT!"

She started swinging lazily on the trapeze looking like she didn't have a care of the world, "Why are you angry with me?"

"I'm not angry." He said gruffly.

"Yes you are~" she responded, twisting her body as to make the trapeze swing her in a circle.

That got him angry; she didn't even look at him. Here he was all sad about her leaving and she couldn't even spare a glance his way, "What do you care anyway!? You're leaving soon anyways so it's not like I'm your problem anymore!"

That got her attention and she jumped down, landing next to the spot where he'd been sulking. "Whoa there! Who the hell ever said that?" she responded, putting her hands up in surrender.

"That's what it means isn't it!? You don't care about us anymore, you got bored of us so now you'll just leave and never come back!" he yelled.

Isane put a hand on his head, awkwardly rubbing it

"…what the hell are you doing?"

Isane pulled away her hand, acting as if the awkward moment hadn't happened. "Well yeah, I'm bored. I've got nothing else to learn from this place; and frankly, touring the U.S. gets kinda lame after a while, at least for me."

Dick huffed and crossed his arms "You're so shameless, I'm not gonna talk to you anymore. Dumbass."

"There ya go! There's no use holding in all of that angst. Learn to let go kid, you're what-seven?" she happily said, continuing after a while "'sides, it's not like we won't talk to each other anymore. I'll buy you a cellphone or something so we can call each other while I'm going around the world, the bill is on me. Maybe you can even go somewhere with me…"

"Really? Awesome, I'm gonna go tell mom and dad. You better come too" he said, running off to the place where his parents where, leaving Isane to trail after him.

* * *

**Isane**

* * *

She'd left the Haley Circus, and subsequently the Grayson family, a little over a month ago.

It was weird to be traveling on her own again. She'd gotten used to having her Ototo and his parents to share a meal, play games; you know, family stuff. Family, that's right, they'd felt like a real family. It's not like she hadn't had any friends or people close to her. But there was a difference between bonding over fighting for your life, or just because the person had known your parents. Her relationship with the Graysons didn't stem from the past; it was all about the present.

So that's why she'd left them. She wanted to travel around the world for herself, to really enjoy the sights. She'd never really had time for that in her world, but now she had an excess of it. So she'd cashed in her remaining ryo and set out to find a way to invest the money she got from them. It hadn't been hard to find a way to do that, the hard part was to invest it well.

She spent a decent amount of time thinking of ways to go about it, and she eventually found the one. So now, she could proudly say that she was the owner of 34% of the Wayne Enterprises. Talk about luck, many of the old coots from whom she bought the stocks from hadn't seen the potential that she had when she stepped foot in the Applied Sciences Department. Lucius Fox was a smart man; one that she'd make sure didn't get pushed aside by the idiots who couldn't bother themselves to look his way.

He was now her representative, and she pitied the poor suckers stupid enough to try to stand in their way. She already had numerous projects that she'd funded out of her pocket money. One of them being an exact replica of Madara's War Fan with the chain and sickle included of course. It had been love at first sight.

She planned to get started on her world tour after all the formalities were done. She guessed she'd become a bit of a free spirit by now. Let Lucius deal with the bastards when they found out about the nineteen year-old entrepreneur.

* * *

**Terms:**

Shuriken: throwing stars

Ototo: little brother


	5. Intermission

**Chapter 5:** Intermission

"_You need to focus." Jiraiya said, for what seemed like the umpteenth time._

"_I AM focusing, you damn pervert!" She snapped._

_They'd been working on chakra manipulation for a while now, starting almost immediately after Jiraiya let slip that the Rasengan had a fourth stage. After determining that she had both Wind and Fire affinities, Jiraiya set about teaching her the most basic Fire exercises, starting with leaf burning. At first, it went well; she was able to burn the leaf quickly after some frustration. However, she was struggling with the next stage, which was to light candles with her affinity._

_The problem lay in her actual control. Her flames were either pitifully weak or far too strong, leaving the candle as a waxy puddle on the ground. She had been struggling with the exercise for three days now, and showed no indication of improving. Hence, her frustration with Jiraiya._

"_No, you're getting angry. You're fueling the flames through anger and desperation. Those flames won't burn anything but yourself." He said, giving her a sharp look._

"_Then what the hell am I supposed to do!?"_

_Jiraiya took a deep breath, then his expression turned unnaturally serious "Calm down, for one. Fire is a complex element. It is influenced more heavily by emotion than any of the other elements. Fire is fear, anger, hate, envy, greed. But it is also courage, determination, loyalty, and purity. If your will is weak, your flames will consume you. But if it's strong, those flames will serve you till your dying breath."_

_She took a moment to collect herself, and then said "But Jiraiya, how do I summon the flames then? It's hard enough getting a damn spark!"_

"_Everyone does it differently. As I said, fire is many things. It comes in many forms. Could be, this exercise will never suit you. You could go your entire shinobi career using anger and hate as your fuel. Everyone does it differently, and you are no exception." With that, he walked off, leaving her to contemplate his words._

"_Determination, huh….."_

* * *

**2 Years Later**

She'd woken up on the floor. Cold, dirty concrete to be more specific.

Deciding to contemplate her dream after relocating to a bed, she lifted her head, only to be hit by a sense of vertigo. She immediately fell again and knocked her head on the floor. That was definitely concrete.

She groaned and attempted to rub her aching head, only to discover that she was shackled. She examined her bindings, and noted that they seemed relatively old. She could shift her legs, but walking was beyond her. Looking around the room, she noticed that she was in a musky cell. There was a cot nearby that seemed to mock her with its marginally softer surface, and a most likely forsaken toilet in the corner. All in all, this place looked rather depressingly similar to a small, gray version of her apartment. She couldn't help but wonder how the hell she ended up in this situation.

'…_ah, that's right' _she thought '_I was caught off guard by those men. Probably terrorists since I'd just been waltzing through the Colombia jungle like I owned it, I should've known better than this. I've gone soft._'

"**Damn right"** spoke the Kyuubi**, "No vessel of mine is going to be killed by humans, especially weak ones."**

"Well sorry," drawled the girl, "It's not like you'll have to use up a bunch of your chakra to save my ass this time. I don't see a Madara around here so relax."

"**I wouldn't do it again anyways!" **exclaimed the fox, **"I don't know what the hell I was thinking, saving your ass and bringing you here."**

Any further conversation was cut off as they heard approaching footsteps. She moved quickly. Reinforcing her muscles with chakra, she broke her shackles and leaped up to the blind spot of the door. She gave herself a quick diagnosis. Though she was still a bit under the weather, she could still move at mid jounin-level speed. Her jutsu would most likely be overkill unless they sent a goddamned army to interrogate her, so those were probably out either way. Anything beyond that would have to wait, though she could probably use a few c-rank fire jutsu to stir shit up.

She observed the man as he came in. Middle-aged, average build; nothing she couldn't handle. His buddy could pose a problem though; any wrong moves could result in him alerting the whole campsite. Though that actually kind of excited her; she hadn't had a good fight in a while. Deciding to take the easy way out, she took a senbon needle that she kept hidden within her clothes and launched it through the second man's skull.

'_Ahhh, the wonders of having a wind affinity'_

She wasted no time and jumped up on the other man's shoulders, using her thighs to strangle him. She took care to drag their bodies to the furthest corner of the room; she still needed to retrieve her belongings after all. The only weapon she had right now was her senbon, the only one that wouldn't be overkill anyways; she still had her emergency weapon stash stored in her ANBU tattoo.

It took her a while, but she managed to find her stuff after looking around for a bit while henged as one of the men she'd just killed. It had been ransacked, and she'd been pissed when she found out that a bunch of her stuff had been given away especially since they were the scrolls where she kept most of her valuables. Deciding to save herself the trouble, she created some shadow clones to search for them, keeping one to take part in the fun little plan she'd created. It was simple; they were to make as much damage to the assholes as possible.

"The prisoner has escaped!" she shouted in Spanish while she chased her clone.

The effect of that one sentence was almost immediate.

All at once, men of all ages and sizes poured out of the makeshift houses and started chasing and aiming their weapons at the clone…the explosive clone; it was quickly shot in the leg and surrounded to prevent another escape attempt. Just as she'd wanted.

"Art is a blast y'know! KATSU!"

* * *

The trek back to civilization had been a bitch. She'd gotten dirtier than she had expected during the fight thanks to the leftover men, but it sure as hell had been entertaining. She hadn't had that much fun since she'd landed in Gotham. Speaking of which, she had a call to make.

Not many people paid her mind as she made her way to the payphone and started making her call; nobody in the small village was a stranger to poverty. And truthfully, even in her messy state she looked better than some.

"Hello?" answered a voice

She took a deep breath, and answered in a chipper tone, "Hi Lu, how's everything going?"

"Ah, Ms. Uzumaki. I'm doing quite fine, thank you for asking. And so is your War Fan, though we're still missing some parts that I need you to retrieve." He greeted.

"Lay it on me Lu; I can't wait for my baby to be finished. I've already started thinking up names." She replied excitedly.

Lucius sighed, already used to her antics, "Only you Isane… Well anyways, I have contacted an old business partner in Japan who is willing to start making your weapons. I believe that he is the most qualified person to make the sickle and chain that you want attached to the fan, as well as your throwing knives and all those other weapons that you're not supposed to have. "

"Alright then, I've wanted to visit Japan. Can you trace the call? I'm going to need some transportation there, as well as a donation to this village. It's quite lovely here. "

"Very well, take care Isane."

She decided to give a call to the Graysons in the morning after she'd gotten some proper rest; she hadn't seen them since they'd gone to China for New Years. Kate and David hadn't wanted her to spend so much on them, but she'd put her foot down and reminded them that she'd promised Dick an overseas trip and she never backed out on her promises. They had a great time in the end, and she made it her mission to keep in regular contact with them.


	6. The Man-Bat

**Chapter 6: **The Man-Bat

_Tokyo, Japan_

* * *

**Bruce Wayne**

* * *

He hadn't been able to believe his eyes when he spotted her.

The girl-no woman-who had unknowingly avenged his parents. It hadn't been hard to put two and two together after seeing her in the courthouse and at Falcone's hang-out. He might've thanked her if he hadn't already made up his mind about where he stood in the subject of killing; now he didn't even know what to think of her.

She was a killer. That much he knew. But as he watched her effortlessly goad her opponent, staying just close enough to appear cornered. She stood out with her incredibly long red-hair and her blue eyes, and apparently so did he seeing as she'd greeted him with a "Hi Bruce, did you know we're business partners now?" Even with her eccentrics, he couldn't help but to truly reflect on just how far apart their skills were. It was disheartening to realize just how much more skilled she was than him, even after his five years of training around the world.

It was a rude awakening for him. Her movements were fluid, fighting to her seemed as if second nature; no more a stranger than breathing. There was no doubt in his mind that she would make it to the final fight. He also had no doubt that he would end up being her opponent. It wasn't cockiness that assured him of it, it was the fact that he had already formed numerous scenarios of how to take down the most experienced fighters in the room (sans the redhead).

The tournament itself had been rather basic as tournaments go. The whole "Fight against each other until only two are left standing" concept wasn't anything new. The real challenge was taking down the Metahumans. There had been five at the very beginning, with only two of them left standing. It was after this round that the real fights would begin.

"Fire Shadow is the winner!" declared the announcer, exciting a roar from the crowd as the Fire Shadow's opponent fell to the ground, his body devoid of life. Killing was not prohibited here, it was actually encouraged as to obtain a bigger crowd.

"That was fun!" she said happily as she sat on the empty seat next to him, "You're up next 'Man-Bat'; you've really got to work on that."

"You didn't have to kill him." He protested; killing was something he had vowed to never do, let the law pass judgment on them rather than himself.

"He also didn't have to try to poison me before the fight either, so now we're even." She responded, making the smile on her face seem darker for a second.

"That doesn't mean that you have the right to take a life, you should've told the observers." He countered, even though he already knew that the whole thing was crooked; he wanted to see her reasoning.

"Yeah, yeah Bruce," she began, "I get it, you're an upstanding citizen and I'm the little fuck-up. I don't know if he deserved what he got; hell I didn't even know the guy's real name. But I sure as hell wasn't about to just let him go just so he could jump me in an alley later on. I have no qualms with killing rats."

"Man-Bat you're up!"

* * *

**Isane Uzumaki**

* * *

It was funny just how often she ended up diverging from her original plans. All she was to do in Japan was meet with a possible business partner and seal the deal, which she did. She'd then taken it upon herself to explore this world's version of her country and enjoy a week of relaxation before she started her world tour/training trip around the world. But her being her, it only made sense that she'd find a seedy tournament to enter for fun.

It had actually been a great idea. She got to kick ass and even met some pretty strong fighters dubbed "Metahumans" in the process. But she really couldn't wait to fight Bruce Wayne. The guy must have been in a training trip as well, if his newly developed muscles were anything to go by. He also seemed more mature than the hotheaded kid who though it wise to confront Gotham's mafia boss without a single weapon or even a bit of actual combat experience.

He seemed hardened, like he'd been to the hells of earth and lived to fight another day. She could tell that he would become a formidable opponent one day, but he had a lot of catching up to do if he wanted to beat her at the end of the tournament. Though she'd be careful not to underestimate him, the man was nothing if not resourceful. Couple that with his high intellect and impressive fighting skills and you've got a badass in your midst.

She wasn't going to go easy on him.

Sure, she'd been following a rule of no jutsu except for her chakra enhanced strength against Metahumans, but even then she'd been holding back. Bruce sure wasn't though, she could see him gauging his enemy's strength, a Metahuman nicknamed "El Toro". Seriously, the guy was wearing a luchador mask and everything; it was kind of awesome though seeing as his power was super strength.

He was like a mini pissed off Tsunade. He kept on throwing punches left and right, leaving huge craters on the ground as he missed. The Man Bat (she'd laughed her ass off as she told the announcer the new name she'd made for him) kept on elaborately dodging the guy's attacks, trying to tire his opponent in order to win the fight. It worked like a charm seeing as El Toro had just thrown a massive punch that grazed the Man Bat, but it had also gotten his arm stuck in the wood; effectively immobilizing him as he'd used all of his leftover stamina in that attack.

The Man Bat then proceeded to cash in his win with a drop kick that made her cringe (the man sure packed a…kick?) and left El Toro unconscious.

"The Man Bat is the winner!" rang throughout the building, it seemed that nobody had expected him to win, not that she could fault them for that; El Toro had to have been at least three times his size.

Bruce stepped off the stage to let the other fighters go at it. He seemed a bit tired, not that he'd really show it in a room full of potential threats. He collapsed in the seat next to her, resting up for the final fight in which he'd already secured a spot.

"Whoa, Man Bat. You okay?" she asked, the broody asshole had become an amiable companion over the course of the tournament; too bad he still saw her as a threat.

"Don't call me that," he grumbled, "I'm fine though, just a scratch from that last hit."

He then proceeded to pull up his shirt to inspect the wound, only to be met with a huge purple spot on his abdomen.

"Shit, that's not looking very good." Commented Isane, "Let me see, maybe I can do something about it."

"Do you have a medical kit?" he asked.

"…No." she responded.

"Then I don't see how you can do anything about it." He reasoned, starting to pull his shirt back down.

"Wait!" She exclaimed, "At least let me try, I'm not too bad at healing, Tsunade-Obasan taught me a few tricks."

He finally gave up, knowing that she wasn't one for backstabbing, and let her look at his bruise. She made a face at how big and purple it looked, and he watched in amazement and apprehension as her hand started glowing a light green color. She then placed her hand on top of his bruise and he let out a quiet hiss at the touch, only for a soothing feeling to take over the pain. His eyes widened a bit as he witnessed the bruise shrink and disappear under her touch; he'd never experienced anything like it before.

"I didn't know you were a Metahuman." He commented as he put his shirt back in place.

"Well, I suppose that's how I would be classified here." She said, "Did it heal alright?"

"Yeah, I feel great actually." He confessed, "But why did you help me?"

"Well I just felt like it." She answered, "Besides, what kind of person would I be if I let you fight with an injury like that? I'm not completely heartless ya know."

A look of understanding passed between them. Even though they would probably have to fight each other in the future, they could still depend on each other if only until then.

* * *

"Shadow, you're up!"

"That's _Fire_ Shadow to you Ryoji!" she teased the man.

"Yeah, yeah just get your ass up in there and kick Newton's"

"Bye Bats!" she hollered, "Wish me luck!"

She was up next against Newton, a Metahuman whose abilities she found amusing since they were remarkably similar to those of Pein. It would certainly be a challenge to fight him with nothing but her taijutsu. He was eyeing her like she wasn't worth his time, but he was experienced enough to not let his guard down; he hadn't made it this far just to be taken out right before the final fight.

"_Begin"_

They just stood there, measuring each other up.

"I've got nothing against you miss, I suggest you give up before you get hurt." He stated

"What the fuck?" she questioned, clearly the asshole had gotten some screws loose during his last match.

"I don't like hitting ladies, but I really need the money." He continued, unaware of the pissed off kunoichi.

"Like hell I'd let an asshole like you win!" she shouted angrily while charging at him. She'd had enough of the chauvinistic asshole. Sure, she enjoyed a sexist joke as much as the next guy, but the asshole was starting to get on her nerves with his self-righteous prattle.

Her assault was stopped short when he raised his hand.

'_Shit!' _She thought,_ 'I forgot about his powers.'_

His gravity manipulation proved to be a bitch when he threw her across the room, only to pick her up and throw her again.

'_Now I know how Hinata felt.'_

His attacks were relentless. She barely had any time to breathe before she would be picked up and thrown about again.

'_He's good,'_ she remarked, _'I can't even use any of my weapons or jutsu. By this point I can either wait it out or outsmart him.'_

It wasn't that she was weak without her weapons and jutsu. She'd spent the past few years training and could now proudly say that she'd achieved Tsunade's level of strength and chakra control as well as Gai's speed; without his weights on. That was right, she was a total beast.

"I wish you'd just give up." He groaned, "It's useless to fight against my hold. My powers make me practically invincible."

"Suck it up you son of a bitch!" She growled. "That last attack didn't even tickle!"

"Oh yeah?" he questioned, "Then how about this!?"

He smashed her against the wall, Isane could feel the bones being broken and mended at the same time due to the Kyuubi

'_Thanks Kyu-chan'_

"**Don't mention it brat."**

"My grandma hits harder than you, bastard!" she roared and then kicked off the wall using her chakra enhanced strength

Newton's eyes widened "What the fu-"he was cut off by Isane's fist smashing into his face, sending him flying into the wall.

"Damn, that felt good." She said, cracking her back. "Ugh, that's gonna hurt like a bitch in the morning."

* * *

"Ladies and gentlemen" began the announcer, "It's finally time for what you've been waiting for!"

The crowd cheered at this, thirsty for blood.

"No hard feelings after this is over?" Isane asked Bruce.

"No hard feelings." he confirmed, already slipping into his fighting stance.

"Let the final fight between Fire Shadow and the Man-Bat….BEGIN!"

The red-head was the first one to attack, eager to test the man's skills. Bruce blocked her punch, retaliating by sweeping her feet off the floor.

Isane didn't miss a beat and jumped just in time, but it had only been a distraction; Bruce had already gotten behind her and hit her with a well-aimed spin kick. She did a cartwheel to avoid hitting the pavement with her hand and performed a drop-kick aimed right at Bruce, who blocked it.

The man wasted no time and grabbed her leg, throwing her like a ragdoll.

'_Damn, he's fucking strong,' _she thought, _'even the bandages I wrapped around my arms came loose with the force…wait! I've got an idea'_

She landed on a crouching position and began running in Bruce's direction at a high speed. Bruce braced himself as he knew that he wouldn't be able to intercept her, and received a hard kick to the gut that sent him up in the air.

"Omote Renge!" yelled Isane as she jumped up in the air after him and got behind him, wrapping his body with her bandages. He was knocked unconscious as she held on to his body, using it as a leverage to jump off as they hit the ground.

"**You didn't even open the first gate." **Complained the Kyuubi.

'_I didn't even spin either, jeez did you want me to kill him?' _she responded.

* * *

"You okay Bruce?" asked Isane as she noticed him waking up.

"Yeah, you healed me didn't you?" he inquired.

"Well, I hit you pretty bad. Wouldn't want to keep you from your travels" she responded.

"Thanks, I know you held back though." He confessed.

"Only a bit, I was trying to keep things fair." She said, "Are you leaving soon?"

"Uh-huh, I'm leaving in a bit."

"Well, I think that you should write to Alfred or something" she told him, "I hear that he's been pretty down since you left. You've been declared dead back in Gotham."

"Whoa, they wasted no time." He mused, "But you're right, I should send Alfred a letter at least. Would you take it for me?"

"Yup, I will!" she agreed, "I've been dying to meet him. I hear he owns over half of the company now that you're dead; though he still keeps on acting as the family butler."

"That's Alfred for you." Sweatdropped Bruce, "He probably still keeps my room ready for me. He's a great man."

"The only problem left now is what to do with this money, 500 thousand dollars is a lot of pocket change." She wondered.

"Last I heard the Daily Planet was doing pretty well," he informed her as he started writing the letter, "You might want to buy some stocks from them."

"Ooh, that's right," she exclaimed, "I think I've seen it before. I'll do it when I get to the U.S."

She was brought out of her thoughts of world domination through economic power when Bruce waved a letter in front of her face.

"Lost you there for a bit," he said, "I finished the letter, thanks again Fire Shadow. I take it you're going back to Gotham now right?"

"Yeah, I'm leaving in a few hours so I have to leave soon. And Bruce," added the girl, "The name's Isane Uzumaki."

"Isane huh." He contemplated, "I guess I'll see you when I get back to Gotham."

"Don't be a stranger Man-Bat." She said as she threw a lazy backwards wave.

**END OF ARC I**

**A/N: **Phew! Glad I got all this over and done with, now the juicy stuff will come into play. Next chapter will start the second Act of this story: Batman Begins. Excited? I am! Remember to review and stuff, I'd really like to read what you guys think about all the things that are going on.


	7. Batman Begins

**A/N: **Thanks for the feedback on the last chapter! I noticed some concerns about Isane having some trouble fighting Bruce and I just want to clarify that I'm taking a version of Bruce that didn't just spend five years being a thug; he actually traveled around the world learning from masters. Also, I'm glad that **koryandrs **noticed the blatant reference to Spiderman, my Beta and I had a good time using that. And fear not! The real Man Bat may make an appearance later on, I just thought that Bruce wasn't ready to face him given that he hadn't faced his fear of bats in the League of Shadows(remember Nolanverse).

**The Ages as of now are as follows:**

Isane Uzumaki: 24

Bruce Wayne: 28(Age Changed from Nolanverse)

Dick Grayson: 12

* * *

**Chapter 7: **Batman Begins

_3 years later_

_Wayne Manor, Gotham_

"Dear Sir, this tea has been brewed to perfection," stated a redhead, "My complements to your staff."

"Why my lady," spoke an older male, "'twas freshly brewed by yours truly, and I must thank you humbly for your praise"

"….Hahahaha, I can't do this anymore Alfred" laughed the redhead.

"Of course you can, you just aren't putting enough effort into it." Chided Alfred, "You're one of the wealthiest people in Gotham now, therefore you must learn how to act like a lady."

"You're right. What the hell would I do without you old man?" asked the woman.

"You'd probably have killed yourself with all those noodles. Goodness knows you needed some real food in that body of yours." He responded with a fond smile, the redhead had started visiting him ever since she delivered the letter from Bruce, and hadn't failed to visit him at least once a week since then.

He'd been curious and a bit apprehensive at her visits; after all she did own a large portion of Wayne Enterprises and might just have been looking to trick him. Yet she proved to be a dependable friend, and when asked about her insistence on visiting the old man she just responded with a "You looked like you needed some company and your cooking sure beats anything I've eaten in a while."

"Oh, I almost forgot to tell you," began Isane, "you're finally gonna get to meet the Graysons since the Haley Circus will come to Gotham in a few months. I know that the little Robin can't wait to meet you."

"Finally," he said, "I was starting to think that you didn't want us to meet and exchange embarrassing stories about you."

"You better not tell them about my driving lesson failure!" she warned.

"We'll see."

Their banter was cut short by the ringing of the phone, upon which Alfred got up to his seat in order to answer it. Meanwhile, Isane got started in the clean-up process since she practically lived in the manor nowadays.

"He's back." Muttered a flabbergasted Alfred.

"Who?" she asked.

"Master Wayne," he explained, "I just got a call from him in which he asked me to pick him up."

"Whoa," spoke Isane, "Well why don't you go and get him? I'll get everything ready for him here and have Lu cover for me at work."

"I couldn't impose," he protested.

"Alfred, I basically live here, "she stated, "If anything, I'm the one imposing."

He gave her a smile at this; she had moved some of her clothes to a guest bedroom since she often crashed in the manor during the weekends. She used the excuse that she didn't want him to feel too lonely with all that empty space, but she actually slept better knowing that she could come to his aid if anyone got the idea to break in once more; she'd beaten the shit out of the last burglars.

"Alright then," he agreed, "I'll leave the manor in your care."

* * *

Alfred and Bruce had taken a longer time than expected so she'd busied herself by messing around with the party supplies that she'd bought. So far she'd managed to set up a pressure plate near the entrance that would shoot off a bunch of confetti poppers and let the "Welcome Home" banner down.

Not only that but she'd also finished dinner and baked a cake. That and she'd sent her clones to do some chores around the house. What the hell was taking them so long?

She ended up falling asleep on a sofa, which proved to be a bad idea since she fell off the couch at the sound of the poppers going off. She sweat dropped at her stupidity and tried to inconspicuously put away the kunai she'd whipped out. No harm no foul, right?

"Welcome Home Bruce!" she greeted with a smile which turned smug as she noticed that he too had assumed a defensive position in front of Alfred.

"That's right," he said while straightening up, "Alfred did mention that you'd been crashing in for a while."

"Crashing is such a strong word," she corrected, "I prefer the term sleepover."

"With Alfred?"

"…I like to keep things interesting."

"Now, now" interjected Alfred, "Let's not start any fights so soon. I'd like to get through dinner first."

"Ah! That's right. You're gonna love dinner, I tried out that spaghetti recipe you taught me." She told Alfred.  
"You can cook?" asked Bruce.

"Why do you sound so surprised?" she huffed, "I can do anything if I try hard enough, right Alfred?"

"Very much so Ms. Uzumaki." Agreed the butler.

"Did you steal my butler away from me while I was away?" inquired an amused Bruce.

"You snooze, you lose sucker!" exclaimed Isane, already making her way into the dining room.

All that Alfred could do was chuckle. It was nice to have Bruce back.

* * *

Unfortunately for Isane, the next day was a work day.

Which was why she found herself in the main conference room of Wayne Enterprises listening to William Earle go on and on about how they should start manufacturing weapons.

"I don't think that Thomas Wayne would've viewed heavy arms manufacturing as a suitable cornerstone for our business." stated Fredericks.

"Ditto." Agreed Isane from her seat, earning herself a glare from Earle.

"That's 20 years ago Fredericks," argued Earle, "I think after 20 years we can allow ourselves to stop thinking about what Thomas Wayne would've done. Thomas would probably not have taken that company public, but that is what we as responsible managers are going to do."

He then tried to call his secretary only to be met with nothing.

'_Can't say I blame her,'_ though Isane as she leaned back on her seat_, 'I would ignore that old bastard too if I were her. But then again, I would've gotten fired ages ago if I were her.'_

"Why is no one answering the phone?" he asked as he opened the doors and revealed his secretary playing golf with none other than Bruce.

"It's Wayne Enterprises Mr. Earle," responded Bruce, "I'm sure they'll call back."

Isane couldn't help but to burst out laughing at the look of disbelief that appeared in Earle's face. It did earn her some funny looks but then again most of them already though that she was nuts, they just couldn't prove it.

Bruce sent an amused glance her way as he was led away to Earle's office by said man himself. Leave it to him to make that kind of entrance and just shrug it off.

"Well, I guess we're dismissed then." said Isane as she rose from her seat. "See ya!"

She reckoned she was due for a visit to Applied Sciences. She did owe Lu a thank you for covering for her yesterday.

The had developed a number of weapons and armors together over the years. Her favorite was an exact replica of Madara's Gunbai, complete with the chain and sickle. Three pronged kunai and the basic shinobi equipment such as wire, senbon, and shuriken were made as well. So now she had no shortage of weapons and, as far as Earle knew, Applied Sciences was as dead as ever; she did pay for her toys with her money after all.

Speaking of which, she was now filthy rich. Bruce's suggestion to invest in the Daily Planet was genius and earned her a lot of money, not to mention the money that she'd obtained from cashing in her ryo and writing the Icha, Icha series. She didn't let it go to her head though since she'd never been one for luxuries. Her apartment was simple (even though she owned the building) and she mostly just spent her money in side projects she undertook with Lu.

She did keep her promise to keep in contact with the Graysons; she'd even gone to Dick's first show. Her Ototo sure had skills. He'd kept on practicing his Martial Arts with her help, and he'd gotten pretty skilled at it; he was now ranked low chunnin. He was very bright too, if it hadn't been for the fact that she'd sent her clones to study all over the world she would've had trouble keeping up with him. David and Kate were pretty proud of him, they'd even let her hire private tutors for him after some prodding.

"Good Morning Isane." greeted Lucius Fox with a smile.

"Morning Lu," replied Isane, "Thanks for taking over yesterday, I swear I wasn't just ditching you."

"I know," he said, "Alfred gave me a call."

"Humph," she huffed, "don't you trust me?"

"You do tend to disappear a lot." He reasoned.

"Can't argue with that. I'll be working on my baby." She said as she turned on the numerous lights.

The Tumbler had been one of their most challenging projects since it had never been fully finished. She was working on that though, and she'd even started adding more features like a smoke screen and a built in computer; she had big plans for her baby.

She spent some time working on it after changing from her business suit to one of the spare outfits she kept in there. She stopped working though when she heard someone opening one of the containers that were kept around the division.

It turned out that Bruce had decided to pay a visit and was getting a tour from Lucius. Curious, the redhead approached them to find out what they were doing.

"So, what's your interest in it Mr. Wayne?" asked Lucius.

"Yeah, I'd like to know too." chimed in Isane, deciding to make her appearance known.

"I didn't know you worked here." said Bruce.

"I like to take on projects with Lu here." explained Isane, "He's my right hand man and he's also been my representative in Wayne Enterprises since I bought a large part of it."

"It keeps Earle from firing me." added Lucius.

"But don't dodge the question, why do you want all this stuff anyways?" she asked.

"I want to borrow it for, uh…spelunking." He answered.

At his answer, Lucius and Isane looked at each other with a "he's got to be fucking kidding me look" before looking back at Bruce.

"Spelunking." stated Lucius.

"Yeah, you know. Cave diving." Explained Bruce, knowing that neither one of them bought his excuse.

"Are you expecting to run into much gunfire in these caves?" asked Lucius incredulously.

"You'd be surprised." Muttered Isane, earning looks from both men which made her raise her hands in defense, "Hey! You gotta do what you gotta do."

"Look, I'd rather Mr. Earle didn't know about me borrowing-" started Bruce only to be interrupted by Lucius.

"Mr. Wayne," spoke the older man, "The way I see it all this stuff is yours anyways."

"Hey! What am I? The next door neighbor!?" shouted Isane.

"Right, you get the Tumbler." amended Lucius.

"Alright then, knock yourself out Bruce" she agreed. "I'll deliver your stuff to Wayne Manor later."

* * *

**A/N: **How was that? I just started rewatching Batman Begins today and I was wondering if anyone ever noticed how she backhands anything that comes her way. I swear she slaps this thug, turns her back to him, and expects him to stay down till she tazes the other one. I laughed my ass off during that scene.


	8. Laying the Foundations

**A/N:** Here you go, an extra lengthy chapter to celebrate Halloween…even though it's after Halloween now.

* * *

**Chapter 8: **Laying the Foundations

"What are you laughing about?" asked Isane; Lucius had started chuckling as soon as Bruce had left.

"Oh, nothing" he responded, "Just the thought of you driving."

"Why does everyone give me so much shit about that!" she complained, "It was just ONE time, and I fully compensated the farmers. How was I supposed to know that there was an animal fair that day anyway? Stupid cows…never liked milk anyway, ramen is way better."

"Alright, alright" said Lucius while raising his hands in surrender, "I won't mention it again…for now."

"What the hell does he need all this stuff for anyways?" she wondered, "And I'm definitely not buying the whole spelunking thing either."

"Who knows," answered the old man, "You know him better than I do."

"Yeah right," she scoffed, "I don't even know the guy's middle name."

"Either way," continued the man, "You'll have to start getting all those items to your car, do you need any help?"

"It shouldn't be a problem," she responded, "I'll just have my clones take some of the things up to the company car."

She was glad that she'd trusted Lucius and Alfred with her secret. They were good men, and even better friends. She'd told Lucius first (having known him the longest) and he had understandably not believed her at first so it took a lot of effort on her part to make him believe her. Thankfully the man had offered to help tell Alfred, kami knows she didn't want to go through it again. It would be a pain in the ass to have to tell Bruce now though, but she knew that Alfred wouldn't want to keep him in the dark and Bruce was her friend.

"Alright then," she told Lucius, "I'm all set up so I'll be on my way!"

"Take care," said the man "And don't run anyone over!"

* * *

**Bruce** **Wayne**

* * *

Remodeling what he'd now dubbed "The Batcave" was proving to be harder than he thought. It was mostly due to the fact that Alfred and him were the only people working on it, and it was _huge_. He couldn't risk hiring others for the task, he was pretty sure that building an underground lair of sorts for Gotham's prince would definitely be a conversation starter. That would definitely cut his crime fighting career short.

'_At least we have lighting now'_ he thought.

"Whoa!" a familiar voice exclaimed.

"Ah, hello there Isane!" shouted Alfred, they'd moved quite a bit away from the entry.

"Hi Alfred!" she shouted back, "I'll be over there in a sec!"

As she got closer Bruce could actually make out that she was carrying something, probably some of the equipment he'd requested.

"How did you even find this place?" asked Alred.

"Enhanced hearing." she replied.

"You can put that down there." Spoke Bruce, "I'll go help you get the rest of the stuff down."

"You wound me sir!" she said, "Do you think me too weak to carry a few pounds!?"

Bruce just stared at her as she made some exaggerated hand gestures. He could see Alfred shake his head in disbelief at her actions.

"Master Wayne doesn't know about your abilities yet, remember?" reminded the old butler.

"Oh yeah, that's right!" she nodded, "So, uhmm….I'mactuallyaninjafromanotherdimension."

"All I could make out from that was ninja, that and dimension" said Bruce confusedly.

"If you would allow me to elaborate Master Wayne," chimed in Alfred, "I believe that what Ms. Uzumaki meant to say is that she is a ninja from another dimension. A dimension in which they use a special force called chakra which resides in the bodies of the people of that particular dimension to perform unbelievable feats."

"…Yeah, let's go with that." Agreed the woman.

"You'll need to explain that in more detail," said Bruce, "Okay, I know that you have healing abilities and you've been trained in combat, but what other kinds of things can you do?"

"Ugh, fine!" complained Isane, "Why does everyone want a demonstration?"

The redhead then did a couple of weird hand gestures which created a puff of smoke. That in itself didn't impress him, what did impress him was the carbon copy of himself that was left standing in front of him.

"…wow" was all he could say as he took her transformed copy of him, "It's perfect, I can see no flaws on it whatsoever!"

"Conceited bastard." she replied with a smirk.

"Isane!" chided Alfred.

"Oh, that's right, no cursing. Sorry!" she apologized, "But anyways, I decided to go with a basic henge, wouldn't want to get your mind blown."

"Do I really sound like that?" asked Bruce.

"Trust me, you sound worse." Teased Isane, earning herself a mock glare.

"This could come in handy," mused Bruce.

"With what? Your little vigilante work?" asked Isane. That certainly took Bruce off guard, if the look on his face was anything to go by, "Oh come on! Nobody goes away to train with the best martial artists and criminal specialists for eight years just to come back to a city filled with crime to get a job at applied sciences. But just so you know you can count me in."

"Isane can be trusted sir." Spoke Alfred.

Bruce pondered this for a moment. The small redhead had never really done anything against him; she even seemed to have earned Alfred and Lucius' trust. The real problem laid on her willingness to kill, he couldn't work with someone like that.

"You can't kill if you join me, I won't work with what I'm trying to stop." he stated seriously.

"I'll try my best." she replied just as seriously.

"I mean it." added Bruce at her response.

"Well I won't lie to you," she explained, "You're smart, I know that. I'm not going to insult your intelligence by promising you not to kill. It's in my nature; I was basically born and raised to kill for my village. What I can promise you is that I'll try, I will definitely not go out of my way to kill someone, especially not in your turf."

He accepted this. He knew that she meant what she said and it made sense too; she did say that she was a ninja. He'd have to get to know more about her in order to truly determine her intentions though.

"Well, I believe we should get back to work then." Stated Alfred.

"What are you guys doing anyways?" asked Isane.

"We're fixing these caverns up in order to create a sort of secret lair." replied Bruce while lifting some cables.

"Ooooh" she marveled, "Can I help? I've always wanted to make one of these!"

"Alright then, but it'll be a long time before we finish this." warned Bruce.

"Don't worry," reassured the woman, "We'll be done in no time."

A number of poofs caused Bruce to look up, making a smile appear on his face as he found a small army of what he guessed were clones that looked exactly like Isane.

"That's genius!" he praised, "We really will be done in no time with all that help."

"Yup!" agreed the redhead, "Shadow clones are some of the handiest techniques I know."

"They've been a great help around the house." added an amused Alfred.

"Not to mention spies," continued the woman, "I can even transform them into rocks or bugs in order to infiltrate the enemy. It's even better here since no one I've met can sense chakra."

"In that case I guess I can get started on assembling my suit." said Bruce.

"Me too." Agreed Isane, "And I've got just the thing."

* * *

**Isane Uzumaki**

* * *

"Mwahaha, kneel before my awesomeness!" shouted Isane.

She was now wearing her Akatsuki cloak and her favorite war trophy, Obito's orange swirl mask. Under that she had a set of ANBU armor that she'd "borrowed" from Konoha's ANBU corps before the final fight. She'd done some slight alterations to it though, like making the ANBU vest and Akatsuki cloak bulletproof; guns were the main weapons in this dimension after all.

"You cut your hair!" exclaimed Alfred.

"No!" she said before he told her off for not caring about her appearance, "I used a henge to make it short and spiky; It's not like there are many people in Gotham with super long red hair."

"That's true." agreed Bruce, "But what's up with the getup?"

"Like you're one to talk Mr. Bats" drawled Isane, "It's a little tribute to my homeland. Plus, I always did kind of like the mask."

"At least you will be unrecognizable." He said.

"What about you guys?" she asked, "Did you two finish up the Bat-suit?"

"Not yet," responded Bruce, "We're still missing some pieces."

"Speaking of which," spoke Alfred, leading them to a drafting table in their makeshift lair, "We would have to order the main part of this cowl from Singapore."

"By a dummy corporation." reasoned Bruce.

"Lu and I can help with that." Spoke Isane from her spot.

"Indeed." Agreed Alfred, "And then quite separately, we place an order through a Chinese company for these."

"Put it together ourselves." Bruce concluded.

"Precisely." Spoke Alfred, "It'll have to be a large order sir, to avoid suspicion."

"How large?" asked Bruce.

"Say, a couple hundred thousand." answered Alfred.

"A couple hundred thousand" mimicked Isane, "Pocket change huh? Rich people."

"You're rich too you know." said Bruce. "But look at it this way; at least we'll have spares."

"What's the plan now anyways?" she asked, "Are you just going to wait around for the missing parts or are you going to start now?"

"I was thinking of finding out who the good and hardworking cops in Gotham are in the meantime." replied Bruce.

"I'll save you the trouble." stated Isane, "Gordon's the only one. I saw him in action once in the narrows; Falcone's pretty much got every cop but him in his pocket."

"What were you even doing in the narrows?" asked Bruce.

"Yes," added Alfred with narrowed eyes, "What were you doing?"

"Uhhh…spelunking." answered Isane. They didn't need to know about her trips to the seedy bars just to have a good brawl.

Both men were unimpressed.

* * *

"So…our objective is to give Gordon a heart attack." concluded Isane.

They'd decided to head over to the Gotham Police Department in order for Bruce to make contact with Gordon. Unfortunately for Bruce his cowl wasn't finished yet so he'd had to wear a black ski mask while Isane sported her finished ensemble. She'd made sure to remark on the irony of their villain-like outfits.

"No." corrected Bruce through his communicator as he made his way to Gordon's office from outside the building, "We're just paying a visit, as well as leaving one of your little spies there just in case."

"Sure," she droned, "I still can't believe I've been reduced to lackey."

"You're not a lackey." reassured Bruce.

"Bruce," spoke the woman, "I'm the lookout; that screams lackey to me."

"Fine." relented Bruce, "Do you want to come up here too?"

"No thanks, I'm fine here." she happily responded.

She could've sworn that she heard the sound of his palm meeting his face from her spot.

'Ku-chan, are you there?' she asked.

"**No."** answered the beast.

'Oh, okay then.' she said.

"**What do you want?" **asked Kurama after a few moments of silence.

'There you are!' she exclaimed, 'I thought you weren't at home.'

"**Asshole, as if I could ever leave."** he muttered.

'Why don't you teach me a new jutsu?' she prodded, 'I'll be your best friend.'

"**I'm already stuck with you!" **he shouted,** "I'll humor you though, since I'm in a good mood."**

'_**That and I can still remember that hellish week of pleading I was put through the last time I refused' **_he shuddered.

'Yay!'

"**Ok then, the first thing that you have to do is make a mental picture of what I tell you since you're using my youki rather than your own chakra."** he began. **"Now brace yourself, the technique that I'm about to teach you is so powerful, so frightening that only superior beings like me can handle it!"**

Isane eagerly nodded her head and got starry eyed at the prospect of such a technique. Luckily for Bruce, she'd thought ahead and made a few clones to keep watch.

"**So what you gotta do now is picture a blue flame on the palm of your hand," **he instructed**, "Careful though, you have to start small in order to get the hang of it."**

She did as told and held out her palm, concentrating deeply on the image of the desired flame. It took her a little while but she eventually got it to appear, it was very similar to Jiraiya's candle exercise.

'Ok, now what?' she asked.

"**Now try bouncing it and passing it from hand to hand."** he answered.

The redhead tried it, being careful not to drop it and start a fire. She quickly got the hang of it and summoned another one in her other hand, she even started applying some of her circus training in order to juggle with them, ending up by catching them all on one hand and extinguishing them by making a fist.

"**Show off."** scoffed Kurama.

'Alrighty, now let's move to the next phase!' she exclaimed excitedly.

"**Uhmmm…."** said the beast, **"There is no next phase."**

'What the hell are you-?' she started but she was cut off by a commotion happening on the building Bruce was in. She poofed out her surveillance clones and found out that Bruce was being chased by the police just in time to reach out and grab his hand, but he ended up still hitting the railing with his chest.

"Can you walk?" she asked.

"Yeah." he answered as he got up, only to wince at the pain from his injury.

"Here, I'll help you out, we can examine your injury at home." she said as she helped him lean on her.

It took a while, but they eventually made it to the car. She made sure to keep an eye on him during the drive to the manor just in case. That was a nasty hit.

"We're here." she told him.

"Alright," he responded, "Alfred's going to get me for this."

"It wasn't that bad." she reassured him as she helped him out. She could already spot Alfred opening the door for them. "Did you find what you were looking for?"

"He seemed like an honest man." he answered.

"Yup! That's Gordon for ya." she stated.

"Good lord! What happened to you Master Wayne?" asked a worried Alfred.

"It's not nearly as bad as it seems." said Bruce, "I've suffered worse and the suit did protect me."

Alfred hooked Bruce's other arm around his neck and helped Isane take the man inside the manor. They then laid him carefully on the couch and started removing his armor.

"That looks really bad." said Isane as she examined the huge purple bruise that took up most of Bruce's left side. "I can heal it though, so no problem there."

"What in the world did you two do?" asked Alfred, letting his charge and his pseudo daughter become vigilantes seemed like a worse idea every time he thought about it.

"It was nothing," answered Bruce, "I just took a nasty fall while running away from the cops."

"You've got to take more care of yourself Master Wayne," sighed the old butler, "And you too Isane; I'll go make some tea in the meantime, goodness knows we all need it."

Isane then got to work on healing Bruce. She was glad to find out that he hadn't broken anything after a quick checkup; she was good with minor injuries like bruising and sprains, but broken bones and punctured organs always proved to be a challenge.

"There, all set!" she announced as the last of the bruise disappeared, "You might feel a minor discomfort, but otherwise you're now just as good as ever."

"Thanks." he said, "I can hardly tell I had a large bruise on that spot anymore."

"You do look much better sir," commented Alfred as he walked in with the tea set and a freshly brewed pot of tea.

"We definitely need to make more adjustments to your suit." reflected Isane, "I have a few ideas to improve flexibility and movement, and your utility belt it going to be so awesome once I'm done with it. We really need Lu to get in on this!"

"Whoa! Take it easy," said Bruce, "We don't even have the cowl yet."

Alfred just watched their antics with an amused smile as he handed them some tea, "I believe Isane will be a great ally to you Master Wayne, especially if she works alongside Mr. Fox. They will definitely help you have the best toys."

"The man speaks the truth." agreed Isane after taking a sip of the tea, "With Lu and I you'll never have to look like a thief ever again; you'll just look like a crazy man dressed as a bat."

"Haha, very funny" said Bruce drily, "Lollipop man."

"Hey, I'm just telling the truth here." she defended, "Though the way I'm picturing the batsuit is pretty awesome."

"I'll visit Mr. Fox in the morning," said Bruce as he got up, "I have to ask him about something. Thanks for the tea Alfred."

"No problem sir." replied the butler.

"We'll probably see each other tomorrow then," she said as she too stood up, "Bye guys and thanks Alfred, my motorcycle's still in the garage right?"

"Yeah it is. Though I don't see why you insist on riding that infernal thing." huffed the man.

"You ride a motorcycle?" asked Bruce.

"Yeah, I'm not much of a car person; they're too constricting" she explained, "Plus bikes are so much cooler."

"Do you still have your house key?" asked Alfred, "I remember seeing it somewhere in the kitchen. You should take more care of them lest you're locked out again for forgetting them here."

"Wait," began an amused Bruce, "You've actually lost your house keys in my house?"

"I stay here most of the time so yeah." she answered.

"Why don't you stay here tonight then?" asked Bruce, "There's certainly enough space."

"Yeah, but I have to air out the place sometimes." she said. "There's also that cat that I feed, and not to mention that I haven't watered my plants in a bit."

"Just make sure to drive safely." warned Alfred.

"Aye, aye Capt'n!" she responded before going out.

The next day wasn't as eventful. It had started with her doing some cleaning and repairs around her house, nothing too major, until she had to get ready to go to work. She didn't have any meetings that day so she decided to just dress casually in a pair of jeans and a hoodie. Alfred didn't need to know about that.

It felt like a day to just lay back and relax. So what better way to do so than to work on her baby?

So she decided to go do just that and headed out to Wayne Enterprises, right down to Applied Sciences. Only to find somebody already in it.

"Who the fuck-!" she started saying just as the tumbler slid to a stop right in front of her.

"Hi Isane!" greeted Bruce, "I was just telling Lucius here that the tumbler would be a great acquisition for our little project but he said that it was yours so… can I have it?"

"No, fuck no!" shouted Isane, "That's my baby, my son. Shame on you Lu! You're a damn traitor!"

(Said man decided to let Bruce handle it, he'd already warned him about the redhead's love for the vehicle and he was definitely not going to face the consequences of the billionaire's actions)

"I'll give you complete control over its' design, as well as the design of the southeast wing and major input in the suit." he deadpanned.

"Hmmm, alright." she agreed, "But you still hurt my feelings. And you're not off the hook either Lu."

"I'm terribly sorry Isane." said Lucius, "I was actually just telling Mr. Wayne about how the new motorcycle parts that I ordered had just arrived."

"Ooooh, okay you're off the hook!" conceded the redhead.

"What about me?" asked Bruce in mock hurt.

"We'll see about you mister," she said darkly, "And don't you dare break the tumbler, not one scratch."

"Duly noted." he droned, leaving the kunoichi to gush over her motorcycle parts.

* * *

**A/N:** Have any of you guys watched the Badman videos made by college humor? If not then I definitely recommend you go to youtube and watch them, they're hilarious!


	9. Catching up

**Chapter 9: **Catching up

She spent the rest of the afternoon putting some finishing touches to the tumbler, with a curious Bruce occasionally lending a hand.

"Ok, it's done!" she said, leaning back triumphantly on the driver's seat.

"Alright, but what did you do?" asked Bruce from the passenger seat.

"I just added a sexy AI voice to the tumbler." she stated, "You're welcome."

Bruce looked a bit puzzled at this, "So we spent three hours just working on this?"

"What do you mean just this? I just gave you a sweet AI!" She exclaimed.

"Well yeah, but you could've maybe added something more useful. Something like a cloaking system." he said defensively.

"I already added that. This was just to kill time while my clones painted the car, I thought it was a cool idea." she grumbled.

"Sorry, sorry!" he tried to appease, "You're right it's very…cool."

"You still don't sound too convinced," she said with narrowed eyes as they got off the vehicle, "but whatever, we should go eat someplace; I heard there's this place a few blocks down that sells really good ramen."

"No ramen for you Isane." intervened Lucius as he approached them, "I got a call from Alfred that you spent the night at your place, so you've definitely had some already."

"Dammit!" shouted Isane.

"What's so wrong with eating ramen?" asked Bruce.

"Nothing, unless it's all you ever eat." responded Lucius, "I must say though, those clones of yours sure did a good paint job on the tumbler."

"Yeah," added Bruce, "It looks pretty sweet."

"Well I did do it myself." stated Isane while puffing out her chest.

"How about we do go eat in celebration?" suggested Bruce, "You can pick the restaurant, just no ramen."

"Alright then, I know a really good Mexican restaurant that's not too far." conceded the redhead. "Are you up for it Lu?"

"I actually just had my lunch break a few hours ago," said the man, "But you kids have fun."

"Come on," said Bruce, "We can use the Rolls Royce."

"I don't think so," spoke Isane with a glint in her eyes as they made their way inside the elevator, "I'm actually thinking of having a nice lunch, no paparazzi or anything like that. So we'll have to take the train."

"Ok then, I'm up for that." agreed Bruce.

"You'll also have to change; I doubt many people there are going to be wearing suits."

"Really? Isn't that a little much?" asked the man.

"You want to blend in don't you? I don't suppose you have some casual clothing lying around, do you?" she wondered.

"No, but I do have some beaten up clothes on the back of my car." he responded.

She gave him a funny look, "…I'm not even gonna ask."

She waited for him to get dressed in one of the bathrooms and then they made their way to the train station.

"I still remember my first time on that thing; I stayed up there for a while." commented Isane as they waited for the next train to arrive.

"Really? Didn't you say that they had giant animals as summons in your world?" asked Bruce.

"Well yeah, but our technology wasn't up to par. We focused most of our time and resources into ninja training; technology was mostly left to the civilians." she answered.

"You accommodated pretty well though." he pointed out.

"I used clones to do that; even then it still did take me a while." she said.

The train arrived then, and they made their way in. Bruce saw this as an opportunity to learn more about his crime fighting partner though, and decided to keep on prodding, "Was your family composed of ninjas?"

"Clan." corrected the redhead, "And yes, at least my mother's. The Uzumaki clan was known for its' sealing techniques, too bad most of them died during the ninja wars. I don't know if my father had a clan though; he was given the last name Namikaze since he was a war orphan with no known relatives."

"What were they like?" he asked as he took all the information in.

"I wouldn't know, they died shortly after I was born." she said. "I've come to accept it, they died honorably while protecting what they loved."

They shared a moment of silence at that. Realizing that maybe they weren't so different, they had just learned to cope through different ways.

"I did meet them once though," she said wistfully, "I remember punching dad for sealing the Kyuubi in me and hugging him afterwards. Mom was a different case though, we looked a lot alike and she was pretty cool; I decided to keep my hair long for her."

He smiled at that, "Only you would punch your old man during your first meeting."

"Eh, he had it coming. Ku-chan had a laugh at that afterwards." she shrugged as he gave a chuckle at the demon's antics. He had taken the whole tailed beast thing pretty well.

"But enough about me." she said with a pointed look as they made their way out of the train with her leading, "What I wanna know is what _you_ did after the tournament."

"I guess it's only fair." he mused, "Well, I spent some of my time in jail after being caught stealing items from my own company."

She had a laugh at that, "Oh the irony!"

"I'm glad you find my misfortune amusing." he said dryly, "I was in jail beating prisoners after that."

"You didn't get that good at fighting from that though," pointed Isane, "Those sparring lessons are getting more challenging by the day; granted they're just taijutsu."

They paused their conversation as they reached a shabby looking Mexican restaurant at which he gave her a questioning look.

"Don't knock it till you try it." she said in a singsong voice.

They were then seated in a secluded area at their request in order to keep their conversation as private as possible. Not that there were many people in the place anyways.

"Well," he said in a lowered voice as he drew closer to her, "I was approached by an organization called the league of shadows during my stay at prison."

"Whoa!" exclaimed Isane, "I assume you went, no wonder you've gotten so good."

"You bet." he said, "It was very a very challenging experience but I learned a lot during my time there."

The waiter arrived at that moment, and left shortly after getting their orders. "Do you still keep in contact with them?"

"No. They actually turned out to be a sort of terrorist organization." he answered, "I ended up burning the place down and saving Ducard, the man who recruited me in the first place."

"Same thing happened to me with the Akatsuki." chuckled Isane, "Except for the part where I actually sought them for training, though I guess they did know that I was a spy…damn Madara. Anyways, I bet you ten bucks that saving that man will come back and bite you in the ass."

"Deal." he agreed.

* * *

"It's a problem with the graphite, sir." explained Alfred after smashing a prototype cowl, "The next ten-thousand will be up to specifications."

"At least they gave us a discount" said Bruce.

"Quite. In the, uh, meantime, sir, may I suggest you try to avoid landing on your head?" Alfred recommended.

Suddenly, Isane came in the room and gave tackled Alfred. Lifting the man up and swinging him around in joy.

"…Can't…breathe…" Alfred managed to get out, leading Isane to put him down in the ground and rub her hand sheepishly while Bruce tried to hide his smile.

"Sorry Alfred." she said, "I was just so excited! I did it!"

"Did what?" asked Bruce as he worked on his equipment.

"I…recreated Ichiraku Ramen's secret recipe!" she burst out.

"You…are that excited about that?" said Bruce in disbelief.

"Oh no," paled Alfred, "This can't be happening."

"Oh yes!" she contradicted, "It did happen, and there's nothing you or anyone can do to keep me from it!"

"Are you serious?" asked Bruce.

"I would never joke about something as important as this." she stated seriously, "Oh yeah, you guys know Rachel Dawes right?"

"Why? Did something happen?" said Bruce urgently.

"Uh, well my clones reported that Falcone is planning a hit on her the day after tomorrow with the aid of some cop." she informed them, "And he's also going to be receiving a drug shipment earlier on that night."

"My suit should be ready by then," said Bruce.

"Yes, I believe the cowl shall be ready by that time as well." added Alfred.

"I'm already set and ready to go," confirmed Isane, "I'll keep on working on the Batcave in the meantime."

They all got started on their tasks right away; Falcone wouldn't know what hit him.

* * *

**A/N:** Short chapter, but expect some action on the next one since they will finally start doing stuff. Sheesh, you'd think Batman would've at least made an appearance nine chapters in…By the way, I'm basing Bruce off of the description given in the comics (Blue eyes, Black hair) though I found myself using the image of Roy Mustang from Fullmetal Alchemist, huh...weird.


	10. Gotham's Elite

**A/N: **I've put a link to my photobucket on my profile where I put up pictures of Isane and some characters in this story.** Mad Bobert **actually asked an important question in a review of chapter 9 about which DC elements I'll follow and I'm actually happy to say that I will include the Justice League, Young Justice, and Teen Titans. I might also incorporate a bit of Man of Steel, but only a bit. Keep in mind though that I'll be using the _cartoon_ versions, and occasionally the comics.

* * *

**Chapter 10: **Gotham's Elite

"Did you get that?" asked Bruce, now clad in his batman suit, as they emerged out of the tumbler at the docs.

"…no. I couldn't understand a thing you were saying." confessed Isane as she fiddled with her orange mask.

"Really Isane? This is important." said a frustrated Bruce.

"Well sorry, but you sounded like you were gargling marbles. No offense." she huffed.

"No I don't!" he protested, "…do I?"

"All I'm saying is that you don't have to take it to the extreme, you'll damage your throat if you keep on doing that." she said as she put on her mask, "All you have to do is lower your voice a bit, you don't have to go all overboard."

"Says the woman posing as a man _and_ wearing a mask." he commented dryly.

Isane chose to change the subject at that, "There's no time for this man! These guys will get away if we keep chitchatting!"

Bruce just shook his head and exited the tumbler after her.

They made their way to the smuggler's location silently, looking out for any lone men. They eventually spotted one and Isane hid herself inside a metal shipping crate while Bruce positioned himself upside down from a crane. He did always have a flair for the dramatic.

The man approached her hiding spot slowly, making her want to just yell at him to hurry the hell up; she'd placed a shadow clone to watch over Falcone and she'd been pleased to find out that the damn corrupt cop that was going to try to kill Rachel was there. Like hell she'd just let him leave. She readied herself as the man was finally within her reach and wasted no time in pulling him inside the dark crate, giving him a blow to the head in order to knock him out.

"One of them got away; he's probably reached the others by now." Bruce informed her as she approached him.

"There's also that cop, Detective Arnold Flass, that's working for Falcone." said Isane, "He seems like the kind of asshole that would be the first one to leave."

"We'll have to split up." reasoned Bruce.

"Sure, I'll get the cop. He pisses me off." said Isane before using jumping on top of a crate and sneaking away as Bruce went after the other men.

She could hear the gunshots and screams almost instantly.

She spotted the cop getting in his car and landed right next to the driver's door, using her chakra enhanced strength to rip it off of the car. The man gave a strangled yell at her sudden appearance, and he started to reach for his gun in an attempt to damage her. It was pathetic really, so she settled for scaring the shit out of him by flipping the car over. Bruce seemed to be handling things quite well on his side either way.

"Wh-who are you!?" yelled the corrupt cop as he crawled out of the car and tried to get away.

She groaned at that, would she have to introduce herself to every villain she fought here? "I'm Fire Shadow, and you're lucky that Batman asked me not to kill."

She was about to start beating the shit out of him but a thought suddenly popped into her head 'What would Batman do?' and so she head-butted him to knock him out.

Needless to say, she laughed her ass off when she found out that Bruce had done that to Falcone as well.

"I must confess, I didn't think you had it in you Bats." said Isane as they made their way to the tumbler in order to rescue Rachel.

"We've been sparring together for a while now and you don't think I'm capable of taking out some third-rate thugs?" asked Bruce.

"Oh no, not that. I just can't believe that you actually came up with the idea to tie up Falcone to resemble a bat; that was actually pretty good coming from you Mr. Broody." she clarified.

He chuckled at that, "I have my moments."

* * *

Isane watched in amusement as Batman beat the shit out of a guy right behind an oblivious Rachel. They'd gotten to the train station just in time, and Bruce had wasted none of it in getting the job done.

"AH!" screamed Rachel as she spotted them, immediately pulling out her taser and firing it at them.

Isane ducked to the side while Bruce merely let it hit him head on, knowing that it wouldn't do anything.

"What the hell!" yelled Isane, "You could've hit me with that thing!"

"Falcone sent them to kill you." Bruce informed Rachel as she looked at him in disbelief.

"Psst, Bruce." whispered Isane, "Lower your voice a bit."

"Why?" Rachel asked, looking oddly at the masked Isane who huffed at getting those looks even in her masked persona.

"You rattled his cage." he answered as he threw an envelope full of incriminating pictures at a spot next to the woman.

By that point Isane had no interest in the conversation whatsoever, so she zoned out.

"Where did he go?" Isane heard Rachel ask after a while.

Puzzled by this, the kunoichi gave the place a quick look and muttered a "Shit!" before using the body flicker to get to the tumbler.

"I can't believe you left me there!" she complained to Bruce.

"Serves you right for getting distracted." he told her as he started driving.

"I thought we had something special…" she sniffed as she looked away from him.

"Not even Alfred would fall for that." said Bruce.

Isane still wouldn't budge though, forcing him to give in "Would you stop if I told you that I have some upgrades that I would like for you to work on for the batsuit?"

"Okay, and you were right," agreed Isane, "Not even Alfred falls for that."

* * *

"Bats are nocturnal." complained Bruce on the next morning as Alfred opened the curtains in his room.

"And so are ninjas." muttered Isane.

That caused Alfred to stop in his tracks, directing his gaze to the bundle next to Bruce, "Is that you Isane?"

"No dammit! I'm the Rokudaime!" she mumbled sleepily.

"Yes! Now I don't have to set them up anymore." Alfred said to himself.

"We must've fallen asleep while discussing the upgrades yesterday." said Bruce, pulling the blankets away from his face.

"Darn!" muttered Alfred as he handed Bruce a newspaper. "Anyways, your theatrics made an impression."

Isane and Bruce got up at that and started reading from the paper.

"If those are to be the first of many injuries to come," said Alfred, "It would be wise to find a suitable excuse."

"Don't worry Alfred," reassured Isane as she got up from the bed and approached Bruce, "I can fix him right up!"

She placed her hand on his bicep, using her healing chakra to make the bruise go away while Bruce drank his energy shake, "Done!"

"Nice!" commented Bruce as he inspected the injury.

"Indeed." added Alfred as he inspected the area himself, "Though we still do need to come up with an alternate persona to make Bruce Wayne as unlike Batman as possible."

"Like what?" asked Bruce as he dropped to the floor and started doing pushups.

"A playboy!" exclaimed Isane as she sat on Bruce's back.

"Exactly!" agreed Alfred.

Bruce gave them a look at their enthusiasm "And what would a person like that do?"

"Drive sports cars, date movie stars, buy things that are not for sale…" listed Alfred, "Who knows Master Wayne, you start pretending to have fun and you might even start to have a little by accident."

"Ooooh, burn!" shouted Isane, "High-five Alfred!"

Bruce got up at that point though, dropping her unceremoniously off his back.

"Ooops!" he exclaimed.

"Now that was just mean," complained Isane from her spot on the floor, "By the way, I'd never noticed that you had a nipple bed."

Alfred and Bruce turned to look at the bed and examined it carefully for a while.

"I shall order a new bed right now sir." Alfred said as he hastily made his way out of the room.

"Thank you Alfred," sighed Bruce, "I can't unsee that anymore."

Isane left to her room in order to get ready after that. She was planning to work on the modifications to Bruce's batsuit but she needed to get Lucius' input on the adjustments as well. There had also been some interesting reports coming in from her shadow clone spies about a Dr. Crane performing some sort of illegal experiments on his patients, not to mention that he'd also been spotted hanging out with Falcone a few days back. The man was all too involved with the shit that was going on.

She got dressed in her white long sleeve dress shirt colored blue at the rims and the collar. Her shirt was tucked into a pair of black shorts that were held up by a white belt with a gold buckle. It was all complimented with the addition of thick black tights and a pair of black boots, as well as her favorite lab coat which Lucius gave her as a gift when she began hounding him for one.

"Ah, are you going to work today Isane?" asked Alfred as she walked into the kitchen.

"Yep." she answered him, taking a seat at the counter where he'd served breakfast.

"She'll be working on some adjustments to the batsuit." said Bruce as he walked in and sat down next to her.

"Just remember that you have to attend that event at the hotel tonight." reminded Alfred.

"…I-uh can't Alfred, I've got to work on some…stuff." she mumbled.

"Nonsense." said Alfred firmly, "Even Master Wayne is taking the night off to make an appearance; it will do you some good to get acquainted with Gotham's elite."

She gave Alfred a defeated look and said as a last resort, "But I don't even have a plus one Alfred, even Bruce will have one."

"Don't worry about that, maybe you'll even find yourself a suitor tonight." smiled Alfred.

Bruce twitched at this, finding it hard to imagine someone with Isane. It wasn't that she wasn't good-looking, quite the opposite, he often found himself staring at her slender frame with her fiery red hair and her deep blue eyes. She was like a child though, and while he liked her playfulness he also knew that other men their age would be looking to form more serious relationships.

"I'll try," she said dryly, "But remember what happened last time."

"What happened last time?" asked Bruce as he watched Alfred pale at Isane's words.

"She ended up being proposed to by Lex Luthor." said Alfred as he shook his head.

Bruce did a double take at that, "Really? I just can't see it."

Isane got offended by that, "Why the hell not!?"

"I mean, Luthor is a serious man, a man of business. How did you two even come across each other?"

"Well I do own a part of the Daily Planet and Wayne enterprises." she pointed out, "It caught people's attention and I was invited to one of those high-class events during one of my trips to Metropolis."

"So you met him there." concluded Bruce.

"Yeah, and he apparently liked what he dubbed my 'spitfire' personality." droned Isane, "I went on a couple of dates with him at Alfred's insistence and he apparently liked me enough to propose."

Alfred looked apologetic at this, "It was not one of my brightest ideas; the man was relentless in his pursuit."

"It couldn't have been that bad; I mean the man is reasonable, to an extent." said Bruce.

"Well he might've been, but the media wasn't, they kept on asking me if I was going to be the next Mrs. Luthor and if I was pregnant with his bastard child." said an annoyed Isane, "Don't be surprised if people look at me funny tonight, I literally told the press to get the hell out of your property since I'd holed myself in here and I even hosed them out; though I did use more colorful language."

"That's why she is taking lessons on how to behave in high society." finished Alfred.

Isane sighed at this, "Well, I'll see you at the dinner Bruce; Kami knows that Earle will keep me close if only to save the company's reputation."

"Dress nicely!" called out Alfred, "And no motorcycles!"

* * *

The paparazzi were eagerly photographing all of the recently arrived members of Gotham's upper crust. Bruce had decided to go through with the whole playboy façade and invited two models to accompany him to the event; they were currently sharing the passenger seat of his Murcielago Roadster as he pulled into the drop-off zone to give his keys to the valet.

"Nice car." complemented the valet.

"You should see my other one." muttered Bruce as he waited for his companions to be helped out of the car. His eyes widened, however, when he spotted a familiar redhead driving a Lamborghini Aventador LP 700-4 Roadster.

He was surprised that she let the valet open the door for him, never seeing her as the type to follow etiquette. As she emerged from the vehicle he saw that she was wearing a simple white summer dress with black trimming that tied at the neck and black heels, with the only accessories being a black hairclip to part her hair to the left and a black ribbon that she'd tied on her wrist. It gave him an odd feeling to see her like this, as if every movement she made was soft and special.

"'Sup Bruce?" she greeted as she approached him.

And the spell was broken.

"What's up with that?" he asked her as he motioned towards the car.

"Oh, that? I like to indulge myself by buying fast cars and motorcycles." she smirked as she realized that she'd one-upped him in the vehicle department this time around, "I am filthy rich ya know."

"Are we going Bruce?" called the women that he'd brought to the party, he'd forgotten their names a while back. Not that it mattered since they'd probably end up drunk anyways. He'd picked them for a reason.

"Good luck with that." said Isane as she went inside the hotel, intent on ending the evening as soon as possible.

Bruce just watched her go as he slipped back into his playboy persona, putting a hand around each woman's waist.

Isane, for her part, was as bored as ever. As soon as she'd come in Earle had pounced on her and dragged her to his table. It wouldn't do for her to make a fool of herself and the man went to great lengths in order to prevent her from doing so. Bruce joined them moments later with his models, taking a spot next to her and chuckling when he realized that she was playing Mario on her modified smartphone instead of engaging in the conversation.

"He's done something the police have never done." said a blonde woman at their table, Isane couldn't really recall her name. She was too busy trying to dodge Bowser's flame balls.

"You can't take the law into your own hands." argued the man next to the blonde. Isane had almost beaten Bowser now, the monster only had a bit of health left.

"At least he's getting something done." countered the woman.

"Bruce, help me out here." said the man.

"Well, the guy dresses up like a bat, he clearly has issues. What do you think Isane?" he asked with a smirk, knowing that the kunoichi was too engrossed in her game.

"Shit!" yelled Isane as she was killed because of his distraction, "He's a real asshole alright."

If the others were surprised by her outburst they didn't show it, but she did get a mean glare from Earle.

"You suck!" she whispered harshly to Bruce as the others continued their conversation.

"It's not that bad." smiled Bruce, "Your princess is in another castle anyways."

She groaned at that, "What happened to _your _princesses anyways?"

"Beats me, at least I can take a breather now." he shrugged.

"That's what you get for being a playboy." she smirked.

"At least I'm getting some." he retaliated, effectively shutting her up.

The hotel manager arrived then, looking a bit peeved "Sir, the pool is for decoration only and your friends do not have swimwear."

They all turned to look behind them, realizing that the two women had entered the pool in their drunken state.

"Well…they're European." said Bruce as he pulled out his checkbook and started writing a check.

"I'm going to have to ask you to leave." continued the manager, struggling to keep his polite demeanor, "It is not a question of money."

Bruce got up and put the check in the guy's suit pocket. "See, I'm buying this hotel and setting some new rules about the pool area."

Isane groaned as she watched him leave and got up as well.

"I'll take care of this, just have the owner contact this number in the morning." said Isane as she exchanged her card with the check, "By the way, are you single?"

"I'm gay." answered the stunned man.

"Damn!" she muttered as she made her way to the pool, shaking her head as she saw that Bruce had gotten in as well.

"Let's go home Bruce" she said, "I'm tired of this shit."

"Nah, why don't you come in for a dip instead." he answered as he pulled her in as well.

She debated between being extremely pissed or just going with the flow. She decided in the latter though, she was too tired from all the work that she'd done in order to improve the batsuit and to get ready for the dinner. And people said that salons were supposed to be relaxing.

"…I thought I was supposed to be the irresponsible one." she chided from her spot on his chest.

He smiled fondly at that "We can take turns."

Many of the guests stared at them as they got out of the pool and were handed robes by the staff.

"I called a cab for your girls." Isane informed him, "There's no way in hell I'm getting my car wet, and I definitely won't be sitting on their laps either."

"Too bad, that would've been hot." teased Bruce, receiving a shove from Isane in response, "But are you just going to leave your car here?"

"I'll have a shadow clone take it home." she told him, perking up when she spotted Rachel.

"Hey Bruce, look who's there." she whispered to him.

He looked back and called out to her, "Rachel!"

"I heard you were back, what were you doing?" she asked as she noticed that he was drenched.

"Uhh, just swimming." He mumbled, "Wow! It is good to see you."

"You were gone a long time." she said,

"Hello, my name is Rachel Dawes, I'm the assistant district attorney here in Gotham." she introduced herself as she spotted Isane.

"Pleasure to meet you, I'm-"

"Isane Uzumaki." interrupted Rachel, "Your help in fighting home abuse and poverty has been extremely essential in keeping Gotham afloat."

"Thanks, I try." she said bashfully at Rachel's respectful tone but turned defensive when she saw the incredulous look that Bruce was giving her, "What!? I'm filthy rich, remember? I might as well help out instead of letting that money gather dust."

"How are things?" Bruce asked Rachel as he ignored the redhead's rant.

Rachel looked a bit down at that. "The same, the job's getting worse"

"Can't change the world on your own" said Bruce.

"What choice do I have? You're too busy swimming" Isane cringed at that; she could see where this was going.

Bruce's smile fell, "Rachel all of-all this- it's not me. Inside I really am more."

"Come on Bruce!" called the girls as they were being ushered inside a taxi, most likely too drunk to realize that they weren't going to be joined by Bruce.

"Bruce, deep down you may still be that same kid you used to be but it's not who you are underneath, it's what you do that defines you." Rachel said morosely as she started to leave.

"That was harsh." Isane muttered as she looked at Bruce, "Don't look so down. I'll tell you what; we're going to have fun tonight!"

"I'm not feeling up to it Isane." he said tiredly, "I just want to go home."

"I don't think so; you owe me." she argued, "So we'll go to my house and have a damn good time even if it kills you. I can't let you lock yourself up in your room when you look like somebody just kicked your puppy and set fire to it for good measure."

He eventually gave up, as seemed to be the dynamic in their relationship, and they made it to her apartment in record time since Bruce drove like a maniac; not that she could complain since she drove that way as well.

"I imagined something more…" Bruce trailed off as he tried to find the right word.

"Traditional?" said Isane in mock hurt, "Wow Bruce, I didn't take you for a racist."

"I was about to say messy." he deadpanned.

"Do I look like a messy person?" she asked as she headed to her bedroom, "Never mind, don't answer that."

He took his time looking over her room. Spotting a plasma TV and a stand with every videogame system to date as well as a shelve full of games. She also had shelves with manga and others with anime dvds and a huge collection of movies. He walked closer to the shelves, past the huge black couch, and realized that she had an entire shelve full of fantasy novels, but that was nothing compared to her kitchen fully stocked with snacks and ramen ingredients and the minibar in the living room, "You know, in hindsight, the only surprising thing about your apartment is its' neatness."

"Meh, you should see my workshop. It's divine." she bragged as she handed him a bundle of clothes. "Those pajamas should fit you; the bathroom's down the hall."

He raised a brow at that, "Why do you have male clothing here?"

"I don't know; I keep all kinds of stuff in here." she shrugged.

He went to change into the black pajama pants and the white t-shirt that she gave him, and he saw that she'd changed into a pair of dark blue flannel pajamas. She was putting on a dvd and she had some snacks and a bottle of liquor with two shot glasses on the coffee table in front of the TV.

"Ok, so I thought that it'd be fun to watch the Walking Dead and take shots." she stated proudly.

"I don't drink." protested Bruce.

"Awww come on. I'll heal your hangover tomorrow." she pleaded.

"What if there's an emergency?" he asked.

She smiled in triumph when he said that, "I have shadow clones on the lookout. Just take a night off and relax man. You really need it."

"What are we taking shots for?" he said as he picked up a shot glass.

"Every time Rick's hat gets a close-up." she smirked.

"We'll die from alcohol poisoning."


End file.
